Published: Wednesday, June 4, 2014 at 07:31 AM.

NORTH TOPSAIL BEACH | North Topsail Beach leaders’ meeting on Thursday will include discussions over a proposed special-use permit for new homes with more than six bedrooms and 5,000 square feet of heated space.

The town’s Board of Aldermen is scheduled to meet at 6:30 p.m. June 5 in the first-floor conference room in Town Hall at 2008 Loggerhead Court.

A public hearing at the meeting is slated to address the proposed additional requirements to build within town limits such immense homes, of which 85 percent are owned by “absentee owners,” Mayor Daniel Tuman said during a workshop last week with the town’s board of aldermen and Planning Department.

Many homes in the town are rented weekly during summer, and some leaders say the town lacks oversight of problems, such as parking, when a surplus of cars overflow from properties onto roads.

During the recent workshop, Planning Board member Hanna McCloud told the board restricting large homes that are not yet built will not solve the problem.

“We already have 90 percent of our houses built already,” she said. “The cat is out of the bag nine times already.”

NORTH TOPSAIL BEACH | North Topsail Beach leaders’ meeting on Thursday will include discussions over a proposed special-use permit for new homes with more than six bedrooms and 5,000 square feet of heated space.

The town’s Board of Aldermen is scheduled to meet at 6:30 p.m. June 5 in the first-floor conference room in Town Hall at 2008 Loggerhead Court.

A public hearing at the meeting is slated to address the proposed additional requirements to build within town limits such immense homes, of which 85 percent are owned by “absentee owners,” Mayor Daniel Tuman said during a workshop last week with the town’s board of aldermen and Planning Department.

Many homes in the town are rented weekly during summer, and some leaders say the town lacks oversight of problems, such as parking, when a surplus of cars overflow from properties onto roads.

During the recent workshop, Planning Board member Hanna McCloud told the board restricting large homes that are not yet built will not solve the problem.

“We already have 90 percent of our houses built already,” she said. “The cat is out of the bag nine times already.”

She said most of the town’s largest houses are not the problem.

“Those big houses, a lot of them, are complying,” she said.

Planning Board member Marianna Harness said the proposal would restrict future residential construction.

“I believe in private property rights ...,” she said.

Mayor Pro Tem Tom Leonard said the immense houses on the island are businesses that are being regulated as residences.

“We have a house ... advertising sleeping 43 people. It has four parking places,” Leonard said.

At a recent meeting, the board’s 3-1 vote — for a 60-day moratorium on homes of more than seven bedrooms and 5,000 square feet — did not pass for lack of a two-thirds majority in the mayor’s absence. Board member Suzanne Gray opposed the moratorium.

The public hearing will also include possible action on the proposed Fiscal Year 2014-15 budget, according to town documents.

The draft budget would increase the tax rate by nearly 2 cents to almost 40 cents per $100 valuation, according to the proposal by Town Manager Stuart Turille.

“This year, however, the ad valorem tax rate must adjust for the 4-percent decline in tax base from last year, due to the 2014 County Tax Revaluation, in order to maintain the Town’s projected level of service requirements and strong fund balance position, a position that must be protected due to the Town’s position facing the Atlantic as a barrier island with associated wind, storm and hurricane events,” Turille wrote in a budget message to the board on May 29.

The public hearing also will include discussion and possible action to allow an exception to the town’s noise ordinance for Summer Kickoff 2014 at the Palm Tree Market and Tiki Bar on New River Inlet Road. The event series would be 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturdays from June 6 to Sept. 27.

In addition, St. Moritz Homeowners Association president Martin Lang is on the agenda. He is slated to speak about the environmental impact of the town’s proposed parking lot south of the condominiums on Island Drive, according to the agenda. The plan is part of the North Topsail Beach comprehensive parking plan.

For more information about Thursday’s public hearings, call the Planning Department at 910-328-1349, ext. 27.